Not-so-random thoughts and chiseled commentary about life, hockey and collecting autographs (primarily on pucks, sticks and memorabilia) for the pure fun of it, certainly not for profit, during the 2008-09 season. To follow the 2009-10 hockey-hounding campaign, please visit Hound Central 5.0.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Working alone

After a meatball stunt got hounds booted off a downtown Tampa hotel's property the last time the Washington Capitals were in town, I figured it was time to try an experiment that I'd been kicking around for a couple of weeks.

Rather than join the likely know-little crowd, if it was allowed, at the team's hotel before Thursday's morning skate, I set up closer to the St. Pete Times Forum to catch any player walking to practice.

Well, I'm happy to report that my experiment worked. I got autographs from the player who walked. Everyone else, I'm afraid, rode the bus.

Enter Plan B: Catching the team this morning as it headed out for a pre-flight practice at the Forum. That decision, far from any experiment, yielded much better results -- another 18 autographs, including 15 cards, in less than 30 minutes joining the four from Thursday.

It helped, too, that I was the only hound there.

For the record, I asked Alex Ovechkin, who notched his 50th of the season against the Lightning last night, if he had the time to sign a puck. His response? "Sorry, guys, not today." Also shooting down my requests were Nicklas Backstrom, an ailing Mike Green and Alexander Semin.

Among the signers:

Washington's Eric Fehr and Jeff Schultz, who both signed some speciality set cards, signed four each; and

Defenseman Shaone Morrisonn, top, and John Erskine, the sole player I saw Thursday, also signed four cards each.

Thankfully, these guys weren't the only ones who stopped to sign. Tomas Fleischmann, who I watched play as an American Hockey League rookie up in Portland, Maine, signed this Capitals puck.